1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electrical fast cookers, and more particularly to a portable multi-purpose electric fast cooking apparatus including a hinged heating appliance and several interchangeable cooking vessels which can be employed in various combinations for cooking a wide variety of foods.
1. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Electrical fast cookers of the type used for quickly cooking hamburgers, sandwiches, waffles, pancakes, and the like, are known in the art. These types of cookers usually have a pair of hinged plates which are superposed to contact the top and bottom surface of the food being cooked, and are not suitable for use in cooking other foods.
Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,431 discloses an electric fast cooking appliance for cooking hamburgers and sandwiches which has a single heating element and a reversible grill having cooking surfaces of various configurations on opposite sides. Both sides of the reversible grill have grooves adapted to receive, in heat exchange relation, a heated rib depending from the downwardly directed cooking surface of the unit cover.
Thelander, U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,418 discloses an electric cooking appliance adapted for cooking a particular food product called a "jaffle" (two slices of bread with filling between, the bread slices being compressed and sealed around the edges and then toasted). The appliance has a hinged upper and lower cooking plate each with a series of concavities surrounded by a circular rim and a cutting bead which cooperate when the plates are closed to compress the bread and filling, cut away the excess bread, and seal the bread slices together.
Coppier, U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,313 discloses an electric cooking appliance for toasting food which has two cooking plates hinged together. Each cooking plate is constructed of diestamped sheet metal and is attached to a sheet metal support plate that forms a heat reflector.
Crockpots are known in the art which have a heating element in contact with a crockery vessel and are capable of cooking casseroles and varied shaped objects at a relative low temperature for a substantial period of time.
Du Bois et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,111 discloses a crockpot comprising a single primary deep well cooking vessel having a shoulder at the mouth thereof which removably receives and supports a secondary crockery vessel wherein the side walls and bottom walls of the two vessels are spaced apart to provide an air space therebetween to produce a thermal lag between the heating element and the crockery vessel for slow cooking.
One of the drawbacks of earlier structures is that they are limited, when operated in their normal fashion, to cooking very slowly or to only cooking food articles having a single configuration, for instance, the flat shape of a hamburger or sandwich. The are also limited in that the temperature of the cooking surfaces are not individually controlled and only one type of food can be cooked at a time.
Microwave cooking is widely popular because a variety of healthful foods can be cooked very fast. However, the microwave oven is relatively expensive, occupies a large amount of space, and is not easily portable.
There has been a need for a fast cooker which is easily portable and wideranging in its usefulness in cooking a variety of foods including sandwiches, meat, poultry, irregular shaped foods, and frozen TV dinners and for carrying out nearly all cooking requirements such as grilling, broiling, frying, baking, toasting, boiling, steaming, and pressure cooking, etc. There has also been a need for a fast cooker which will cook various different types of foods at the same time.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, and these patents in particular by a portable multi-purpose electric fast cooking apparatus for use in cooking a variety of foods by various methods. The apparatus includes a pair of hinged pan-shaped housing members having a bottom wall and a side wall which can be pivoted between a closed position superposed one above the other in opposed facing relation and an open position laterally adjacent one another, and each housing has a laterally extending handle to serve as a carrying handle when the housing members are in the closed position. A heating plate is carried by each housing member and each plate has a heating element secured to its underside and an outward facing side with a central depressed flat surface surrounded by a raised side wall and shoulder at the top thereof. Each heating element is individually controlled by a separate thermostat. In the closed position, the depressed flat surfaces, surrounding raised side walls and shoulders define a central cavity. In the open position, the depressed flat surface, raised side wall, and shoulder of each plate serve as a mounting surface to receive cooking vessels having mating bottom. The preferred apparatus includes a pot member, a pan member having an open top end configured to be received on the pot member in inverted relation to serve as a cover therefor, and a wire grill capable of being supported either on the heating plate or inside the pot.